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I think this is true to an extent, but it really depends on how much information the LLM has on a topic. They’re amazing at maths because maths has been open s

I think this is true to an extent, but it really depends on how much information the LLM has on a topic. They’re amazing at maths because maths has been open source since day 0. They’ve great at algorithms for similar reasons. C bindings are a doddle because there’s so much prior art available. They’re terrible at using cutting edge features in languages because there’s not much data yet. I think it’s fairly easy to predict what they’re good at on this basis. I’m not sure why they suck at UI design though.

ChrisMarshallNY 1mo ago
> I’m not sure why they suck at UI design though. I think they do OK, if you are fine with middle-of-the-road, default stuff. Also, I have found that it's important to provide guidance, constraints, and context to the LLM. I have been working on a native iOS Swift app, for the last few months, and our team consulted an LLM (might be ChatGPT, might be Claude -I wasn't the one that consulted it), for graphic and interaction design. Some context: We have written a 2.0/full rewrite of an existing app, that has been shipping for a couple of years. The 1.X version was designed by a professional graphic designer, but we didn't have him available for the rewrite, so we had to make do with our own guidance (questionable), and LLMs (also questionable, but for different reasons). Anyway, As I started on the project, I kept getting designs that were, quite frankly, awful. They looked like generic Apple SwiftUI app screens, or worse, old Facebook app screens, with absolutely no relation to the current app. I had to basically ignore most of the graphic layout, and use only the interaction design. After hearing complaints about "not making it look like the screens I sent you," I explained that they needed to train their LLM on the current design. There was no way that I was going to implement those ghastly graphics (It is so good to be able to do that. I'm retired, and working for free. In the old days, I would have had to take out a spoon, tuck in a bib, and eat shit). They did that, and suddenly, their submissions were great, and I could start using them.
- willtemperley 1mo ago
  Thanks that’s an interesting anecdote to me because I’m also developing SwiftUI apps. Claude will create something that technically works but looks terrible. I don’t have the luxury of a previously well designed app to train Claude on, but I’m finding just building the UI the old fashioned way then asking Claude to fix the bugs works to an extent. I’m hoping that creating a comprehensive design system with good semantic naming will help.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 1mo ago
    You can ask Claude to create a "design language." That's a lot more than just visual design, as it incorporates things like branding and interaction. You can keep iterating it, until you have something that works. It can be a fair bit of work, but worth it. In my case, I uploaded final PNG screenshots, along with detailed README files, explaining each screen. I also uploaded MOV files. I use ChatGPT, which has a "memory," so I just declare the current state as "baseline," and it will always riff off of the design language. Not sure if Claude can do that. Also, with SwiftUI, you have hard limits on what you can do, visually. I tend to use UIKit for my release products, because of that. I find UIKit to be a pain, but with it, and Autolayout, I can do almost anything.

ChrisMarshallNY 1mo ago

> I’m not sure why they suck at UI design though. I think they do OK, if you are fine with middle-of-the-road, default stuff. Also, I have found that it's important to provide guidance, constraints, and context to the LLM. I have been working on a native iOS Swift app, for the last few months, and our team consulted an LLM (might be ChatGPT, might be Claude -I wasn't the one that consulted it), for graphic and interaction design. Some context: We have written a 2.0/full rewrite of an existing app, that has been shipping for a couple of years. The 1.X version was designed by a professional graphic designer, but we didn't have him available for the rewrite, so we had to make do with our own guidance (questionable), and LLMs (also questionable, but for different reasons). Anyway, As I started on the project, I kept getting designs that were, quite frankly, awful. They looked like generic Apple SwiftUI app screens, or worse, old Facebook app screens, with absolutely no relation to the current app. I had to basically ignore most of the graphic layout, and use only the interaction design. After hearing complaints about "not making it look like the screens I sent you," I explained that they needed to train their LLM on the current design. There was no way that I was going to implement those ghastly graphics (It is so good to be able to do that. I'm retired, and working for free. In the old days, I would have had to take out a spoon, tuck in a bib, and eat shit). They did that, and suddenly, their submissions were great, and I could start using them.

willtemperley 1mo ago
Thanks that’s an interesting anecdote to me because I’m also developing SwiftUI apps. Claude will create something that technically works but looks terrible. I don’t have the luxury of a previously well designed app to train Claude on, but I’m finding just building the UI the old fashioned way then asking Claude to fix the bugs works to an extent. I’m hoping that creating a comprehensive design system with good semantic naming will help.
- ChrisMarshallNY 1mo ago
  You can ask Claude to create a "design language." That's a lot more than just visual design, as it incorporates things like branding and interaction. You can keep iterating it, until you have something that works. It can be a fair bit of work, but worth it. In my case, I uploaded final PNG screenshots, along with detailed README files, explaining each screen. I also uploaded MOV files. I use ChatGPT, which has a "memory," so I just declare the current state as "baseline," and it will always riff off of the design language. Not sure if Claude can do that. Also, with SwiftUI, you have hard limits on what you can do, visually. I tend to use UIKit for my release products, because of that. I find UIKit to be a pain, but with it, and Autolayout, I can do almost anything.